MacKenzie did show him around his house and barn, and he was easy enough to bargain with. He had no problem with doing both jobs simultaneously, if Aaron would trust him when it came to hiring teams.

That was easy enough to concede. He didn't know who could or couldn't do such work, nor was he an adequate judge of their skill level.

He did, however, have some rules for any job, including no drinking during working hours. From what he had seen, THAT might be a problem.

MacKenzie just laughed and said it wasn't.

Then they discussed costs. There was SOME seasoned cut lumber around – Jonny had a fair amount. (Good for Jonny.) There was also plenty of seasoned timber available, and, of course, they could get all ther green timber they could pay for. Everybody had some of that around from where they cleared land for their own homes.

Finally came the discussion of costs. That was the most difficult part of the deal, and they conducted part of it over the dinner table, with his wife and two nearly grown sons.

Mrs. MacKenzie could COOK! Aaron offered to hire her on the spot to prepare his supper every evening, once his home was ready. She blushed, giggled, and acted coy, which was faintly disturbing for an older housewife long past the coquette age. Well, he didn't want to marry her. Just hire her.

Aaron, late in the afternoon, left the MacKenzie farm, mostly satisfied with his day's work, and wondering, with a touch of impatience, when the building would get started. He decided to walk around the town, which was, of course, a bit larger than he had first thought. Behind the one main street/waterfront/square/business district there were side streets (more like alleys) with clusters of houses, all of them fairly well built.

There seemed to be some factions in the town. One was those who'd come by land, and the other the ones who came by water. There was also a smaller but growing faction of those who were there for other reasons. Trappers, fishers, hunters, miners, drifters who showed up and lingered. There were some who had started families, or lost family members – there was a small graveyard – and decided to stay put. They couldn't go much farther west, that was obvious, although there was a good chunk of forested land and another range of mountains across the water.

The place definitely had possibilities.

This evening, there were only a few boys down at what-they-called-a-dock. Usually there were a few Indians there, bartering, or buying and selling. (Which was essentially the same thing in this area.) The strange not-quite a building was a trading post, meant for doing congenial business with both natives and settlers.

The boys appeared to be fishing, and Aaron had yet to get a close look at the dock, so he wandered on down.

Two of the boys took off and three remained.

One was a Bolt. (Why wasn't he surprised?)

Aaron stopped beside the blond boy, watching him work his line. "Can you really catch fish from here?"

"Yessir. There's not too many places 'round here that you can't."

"How deep is it here?"

"Dunno. Deep enough to fish. Or swim."

Aaron nodded out across the water. "How deep is it out there?"

The blond (why couldn't he remember the boy's name?) grinned. "Mister, there's whales out there!"

Aaron smiled. "Plenty of room, huh. Strange you don't see whalers, isn't it?"

The boy shook his head. "Not really. Jason and Da say they need a lot more surface area. Because whales don't go easy."

"Did your da work as a whaler? Or your brother?"

"I don't think so. Well, I know Jason didn't, but he might've seen some. He reads about 'em. He reads about everything."

"I see."

"B'sides, they're using oil instead of whales for stuff now. Some of the Indians trap whales, though. I don't know how. If you want whale stuff, they can probably supply you."

"I'll keep that in mind." Aaron watched as the boy started pulling in his line. There was plenty of it, which, of course, there would be.

"Tide's turning," Josh said, and again flashed a smile. "B'sides, I better get home before they come looking for me. Too bad I didn't catch anything; Jason can't cook."

"Oh." Aaron continued looking out across the water while the boy walked away. He was watching the sunset beyond the waters and behind the more distant mountains, when he heard the other boys teasing Josh, at first about not catching anything.

"Hey, Josh, they're looking for ya!" Someone unknown to Aaron barreled out of the barn.

"I wasn't hidin'," Josh replied, continuing to stroll along.

Lottie was standing outside her place, and she said, "Josh, Jason wants you home. Supper's ready."

"Thanks, I'm goin'." He slowed down a little bit.

Lottie laughed at him. "It's not that bad. Might even be good. He and Jeremy snared a rabbit on their way to see the sunrise and they've been cooking it in the fireplace. Jason can cook over a fire."

"Your Mummy brother's looking for you."

Aaron thought that wasn't very nice, because of the mother's death which seemed to be recent. He started walking toward the boys.

Josh said, "Oh, shaddup, you." It didn't seem to bother him.

"Timmy Tucker, you hush your mouth," Lottie commended. She must have also thought it wasn't nice.

"Mummy brother and dummy brother are waiting for you. Do you hafta be there to fee–"

The two boys were rolling in the mud, Lottie was squawking at them, and the older brother came around the corner at a run.

As did some, if not most, of Lottie's customers, who were more interested in watching and cheering, maybe even betting.

Jason Bolt pulled the boys apart and set his brother on the ground. "Git on home."

"But, Jason –" Josh started to defend himself.

"I heard," Jason said loudly. He patted Josh's shoulder. "Go on. It's okay." That was calming and sympathetic.

Josh started walking, after picking up his fishing gear.

Jason started walking the Tucker boy to his home, taking long (angry?) strides without letting go but expecting the child to keep up with him, or be dragged through the mud.

Lottie, exasperated, put her hands on her hips and looked directly at Aaron. "Why can't they leave that baby alone?" before whirling around and following her customers back inside.

Aaron had no answer for her, and entered behind her going up to his room trying to puzzle out what that was all about.

Did he really want to know?